Tuesday, September 1, 2009

Raw Without Hunger

For the first time ever, I made it through an entire raw day without suffering from crazy hunger every three hours! I began my morning with a simple glass of Beautifying Pumpkin Mylk from Ani's Raw Food Kitchen:

Just pumpkin seeds, vanilla bean, dates, and water! Ani says the mylk is great for your skin since pumpkin seeds contain omega-3 fatty acids. Lately, I've been sticking to simple liquid breakfasts on raw day. And I'm usually starving an hour after I get to work, so I bring plenty of snacks to eat at my desk. However, after drinking the mylk today, I was satisfied until around 11:30 a.m.

I nibbled on these Carrots and Raw Vegan Pesto as a pre-lunch snack, even though I could have made it to lunch without them:

The ranch is Shellyfish's recipe, which you can find here. I've tried several recipes for raw ranch, and I think Shellyfish's is the best so far. Even though I was full about mid-way through the salad, I ate almost every bite because the dressing was that good. The croutons were crumbled from leftover slices of the Sesame Sunflower Bread from Ani's Raw Kitchen that I'd made several months ago. They keep forever in the fridge!

On most raw days, a similarly-sized salad would fill me up for about two hours and then I'd be munching on more veggies, fruits, or a Larabar. But I really didn't get hungry again until after leaving the office. I did, however, make room for a few locally-grown grapes because I brought them to work, and dammit, I was gonna eat them.

Around 6 p.m., I had dinner — Zucchini Fettucine with Guacamole — though I wasn't famished as usual:

I know my guac looks a little funky. I cut out a lot of bad spots and ended up with less avocado than other ingredients, resulting in a more liquid-y guac. It was still very delicious. I got the idea of topping raw noodles with guac from Eat 'n Veg'n.

Of course, I ended my day with a big ole bowl of Raw Banana Soft Serve with Chopped Pecans and a little light reading from Emma Goldman:

In case you don't know the wonders of banana soft serve, hit up Gena's Choosing Raw for details. I'm convinced it's the best thing to happen to raw cuisine ... ever.

30 comments:

lizzie
said...

yum yum! i am making it a goal this year to start eating a ton more raw. you make it look easy and delicious. on another note, i know you attend a lot of vegan potlucks, i'm going to my first and was wondering if there was anything you highly recommend i bring (that will be a hit!). thanks and love your blog!

The Mylk....sounds really good. Simple but good. Pumpkin seeds are really high in Vit. E and I think that's supposed to be really good for your skin so she wasnt lyin' when she said it was beautifying mylk.

All your food looks sooo pretty. It's like just so perfect and raw and wonderful.

I need to figure out my camera settings and my lighting better; your gorg pics inspire me to do that!

And there's iron in those seeds too! Oh, how I love pumpkin seeds, I must try this milk. I always enjoy your raw food post, the are very inspirational...now I am off to check out that soft serve recipe...

Mmmm...I don't think there is anything better than banana ice cream. There is a place on the boardwalk at the beach we go to that sells it! They actually put the frozen bananas through a juicer, which somehow makes it that much better. Actually, we first had it while we were in Hawaii, but this is much easier to get, haha.

To Lizzie: For a vegan potluck dish suggestion, I find you can't lose with a tasty dessert...maybe the East Coast Coffee Cake from Vegan Brunch or the Smlove Pie from the Veganomicon. Or for savory ideas, a pasta salad with artichokes, olives, and tofu feta is simple and easy. Also dips and pates are great for potlucks...like maybe the Tempeh Pate with crackers from the Vegan Table. Good luck!

I tried to make the banana soft serve a week or two ago, but I think I blended it too much, if that's possible? It seemed to be fluffy at one point, but I kept blending, and then it just got gooey and liquidy. :( Yours looks great though!

Everything looks great! It's inspiring to hear about your raw food adventures. I'm trying to incorporate more raw food into my family's diet, but it's soooo hard, because I love ooey gooey comfort foods and raw foods, though delicious, don't exactly qualify as "comfort foods". We actually have a raw food restaurant here in Jacksonville close by that I should go to more often: http://www.shaktilifekitchen.com/index.html

hooray for a truly satisfying raw day, Bianca! i love that you do a raw day once a month – i really need to do something like that.

the pumpkin mylk looks so good! i love your glass! i have ani’s book & i need to try that mylk out. pumpkin is so perfect for the fall season! raw vegan pesto is something dan & i love. we think the raw walnuts taste better than the regular ones. you make one glorious look’n salad – and the croutons are too yummy looking! i saw Shelly’s recipe & i keep meaning to make it. thanks for the tasty reminder! zoodles with guacamole (it looks yummers to me) & raw banana soft serve?!?! so, soooooooo delicious! mmmmmmmmmm!

P.S. I'm the awkward gal who ran into you at Whole Foods this past Saturday. I didn't even introduce myself, which is a bad habit I have. I'm Wendy. I have a sometimes meaty blog. I love your raw days the best.

Ok so I went ahead and made it. I had 3 bananas, broken up and put in a freezer bag, in the freezer for 4 hours. Whirled them in the food processor and to mine and my children's amazement, the bananas became like ice cream! I scooped it into bowls and sprinkled a little cinnamon over each, and we had the perfect before bed snack!! The kids said they can't wait to have that again! Thanks!

My name is Bianca ...

About Me

I'm a 9-year vegan, 19-year vegetarian from the Mid-South, not too far from the muddy banks of the Mississippi River. And that means cornbread, butter beans, and collard greens.
These days, I live in Memphis. Check out my cookbook — Cookin' Crunk. It's filled with yummilicious veganized soul food and country classics.